At the beginning of my MBBS(Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) course, I was struggling with studying my portions, although I was spending more time than usual. Hence, when my friend introduced me to residency in the United States of America(USA), I thought that maybe I could try my luck in foreign lands. At the beginning of the second year, I familiarized myself with the United States Medical Licensing Exam(USMLE) exam format. Back then, I didn’t know what was in store for me. I wonder if I knew what it entailed, I would have bothered to go through the USMLE process. Although it was a complicated process, I guess I was lucky compared to many others.
Based on my MBBS exam experiences, I felt that I would be ready to prepare for step 1 only after completing my final year exam. So my plan for step 1 in May 2015 was something like this(yes, I had planned three years ahead of the Match):
Pass Final year MBBS: Jan 2016
Internship with 2 weeks of extension period: March 2016 to March 2017
Do 3 clinical electives: April 2017 to June 2017
Come back to India and prepare for step 1: July 2017 to December 2017
Step 1 Exam: end of December 2017 (total 6 months of prep)
Step 2 CK exam: in April 2018
Observerships: 2 of them in May and June 2018
Step 2 CS exam: in July 2018
Apply for the Match in September 2018
By this time I wanted to get 4 US letters of recommendation(LoRs) and keep my Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates(ECFMG) certificate ready. Following this, I planned to begin preparation for step 3 during the interview season and give it in December 2018. This was similar to what my senior of four years did and what I had planned to do as well.
However, I followed a new and weird path and ended up getting matched to the University of Connecticut Internal medicine program and will be beginning residency soon in June 2018. How did I manage to do that?